New Efforts to Boost Mexico Border Tourism Should Yield Better Roads : Spending: Multimillion-dollar program is also expected to provide drivers with more unleaded fuel, highway rest areas and emergency roadside service.

Last month, Mexico opened a new tourism office in San Antonio, Tex., devoted entirely to providing information to U.S. travelers bound for south of the border by surface transportation: bus, train, ship and--its special concern--private car or recreational vehicle. The move is part of a major campaign to boost tourism in the country’s border areas.

As part of the multimillion-dollar effort, Mexico is acting to:

--Substantially increase the availability of unleaded gas throughout the country. The scarcity of unleaded gas has been a big problem for U.S. motorists until this past summer. Now there’s “a good supply” of the gas, called Magna Sin, reports the Laredo, Tex., office of the American Automobile Assn. Sin is the Spanish word for without .

--Open the door to more motor-coach tours originating in the United States. Right now, most bus tours begin in Mexico or at the border and are operated on Mexican buses with Mexican drivers and guides. America’s tour bus operators anticipate that Northern snowbirds, headed south for the winter, will like the convenience of boarding a tour bus to Mexico in their hometown or state, says Stephen Sprague of the United Bus Owners of America.

--Build its first highway rest areas, promising that they will be kept safe and clean. The first 10--complete with restrooms, a restaurant and a convenience store--are being built on roads leading into the Mexican interior from the U.S. border, according to Rolando Garcia, who heads the new San Antonio office.

--Increase the fleet of Green Angels, the roving auto service vehicles that assist stranded motorists. Currently, about 1,500 Green Angels ply the nation’s highways, says Garcia, and another 450 are being added, primarily in border areas.

--Improve the nation’s major highways. It’s an ongoing task, says Garcia, but about 5,000 miles of new or improved roads are projected for the near future. One greatly improved road already is Mexico Route 1 from Tijuana south through the Baja California peninsula to the resort town of Cabo San Lucas at its tip, a distance of about 1,100 miles. The AAA reports that the highway is in “good condition” except for some rough stretches in southern Baja California. A new four-lane, 275-mile highway linking Mexico City and the Pacific beach resort of Acapulco is expected to open next year, cutting the seven-hour driving time significantly.

--Enhance the historic and cultural appeal of the nation’s border communities. As part of this project, two $400-million theme parks patterned after Disney World’s Epcot Center are under construction: Quetzalcoatl in Tijuana, which will trace Mexico’s heritage from pre-Columbian civilizations to the Spanish colonial era, and Paso del Norte, in Ciudad Juarez, which will reflect Mexico’s history from its war of independence in the early 19th Century to the present. Another related project is a historical driving tour along a 200-mile stretch of the Rio Grande River on the Texas-Mexico border, with roads paralleling the river on both sides of the border--in Texas from Laredo southeast to Brownsville on the Gulf of Mexico, and in Mexico from Nuevo Laredo to Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville--so that motorists can make a two-nation circle drive.

“We want to change the image of these border towns,” says Sigfrido Paz Paredes, director of the Northern Border program for the Mexican Government Tourism Office. “It’s out of date. There’s more happening there than bars for U.S. tourists.” He is quoted in a press release distributed by the Mexico Travel News Bureau.

Some of these improvements are still in the future, but Mexico’s hope is that as they are implemented, the flow of overland travelers south will increase dramatically. Mexico attracts more than 6 million foreign visitors annually, most of them from the United States. Currently, 61% of the nation’s visitors arrive by airplane and only 35% by land. But tourism officials are convinced that the greatest potential for growth is from auto, bus or train travel from the United States and Canada. A driving or bus vacation can be much cheaper than one that requires the purchase of an airline ticket.

A major concern of many travelers driving into Mexico is personal safety. A recently released General Accounting Office study reported that between June, 1989, and February, 1991, a total of 139 Americans were the victims of violent crimes in Mexico: 39 murders or attempts, 29 rapes or attempts, three kidnapings and 68 assaults and armed robberies. Nevertheless, the U.S. State Department did not issue a travel advisory warning about crime because the number of victims was considered relatively low compared with the large number of American visitors each year.

“ ‘Is it safe?’ people always ask,” says Garcia. “Compared to the number of visitors, the statistics are very low in regard to casualties.”

As anywhere in the world, travelers in Mexico are potential targets of crime. But by taking normal precautions, you should be able to avoid becoming a victim, according to the press office of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. For example, don’t flaunt your wealth by wearing expensive clothing and jewelry in impoverished neighborhoods, says a press attache, who declined to be identified.

Americans should not be fearful about driving Mexico’s highways, agrees Clark Hunter, a writer for AAA guidebooks who spends a month each year exploring Mexico by car. In terms of crime, road trips “are less dangerous than in this country.” However, he does not recommend driving at night, in part because wandering cattle, horses and other stray animals are a major hazard in the countryside.

The tourism office handles inquiries about bus, train, sea and auto travel to Mexico. When hiring is complete, there will be a staff of five or six bilingual advisers. No toll-free 800 number is available yet, but there should be one soon, according to Garcia. For more information, contact the Los Angeles office: Mexican Government Tourism Office, 10100 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 224, Los Angeles 90067, (800) 262-8900 or (213) 203-8151.